festivals with Unaccompanied singing

Subject: RE: festivals with Unaccompanied singing
From: Shezinaussie
Date: 04 Feb 20 - 09:04 PM

I have the Falmouth International Shanty Festival on my list - definitely going to that -
looked at DORSET TRADITIONAL SONG WEEKEND        5/6/20        7/6/20 - but only 35 tickets so decided too small
for the weekend 26th to 28th:
choice of St Albans Festival or Hull Folk and Maritime Festival or West Sommerset Folk - which has the most singing is the question ???
Gap on 19th to 21st June????
Someone mentioned: Fifesing - that is in May - we are tossing up between Fifesing & Shepley Spring Festival - same weekend!
May is sorted, apart from that question: Upton Festival, then Holmfirth Festival then Fifesing
or Shepley Spring Festival, then Chippenham festival then an extra one at Doncaster Folk Festival!
July is: Cleackheaton, Warwick Festival
August - Whitby & Shrewsbury - still a work in progress
September is one only, Bromyard, as leaving the country then!
Might be shattered if we do them all :(
Yes Brian Peters, it is me!!
Thanks everyone for your input :)

Subject: RE: festivals with Unaccompanied singing
From: r.padgett
Date: 05 Feb 20 - 02:55 AM

I will certainly see you at some of these! god willing

Ray

Subject: RE: festivals with Unaccompanied singing
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 05 Feb 20 - 05:55 PM

Hull Folk & Maritime.
Free festival apart from a couple of concerts. Last year due to lack of funding we had a grass roots festival based on local singers/musicians with lots of singarounds and sessions, concerts on boats. The way funding is currently going it's looking like same again. If we get any substantial funding it will go on a few big names for paid concerts but the basic grass roots will always be there.

Subject: RE: festivals with Unaccompanied singing
From: GUEST,jim bainbridge
Date: 06 Feb 20 - 05:00 AM

This funding distortion is serious. No problem about musicians making a living out of the music, but funders who have a set amount for 'folk and traditional music often take the easy & safe route.

I recall a few years ago when my local authority had a set amount for traditional music, but had no background or knowledge of this kind of music & gave 100pc to a locally thriving country music festival!    yeeha.
Easy and safe but not very helpful to the grassroots!

Subject: RE: festivals with Unaccompanied singing
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 06 Feb 20 - 07:33 PM

Sounds like a great itinerary, Shez: hope we may see you at Fifesing, but just go with whatever works best for you. I just had a Fifesing email today, so there may now be more detail of the programme on the website.

Subject: RE: festivals with Unaccompanied singing
From: vectis
Date: 08 Feb 20 - 10:24 PM

I would highly commend

Pennymoor Song and Ale - First weekend in June. Friday 5 to Sunday 7 June 2020. Google for it and the contact details.

A wonderful weekend of local and outside singers held in Devon a few instruments but mainly unaccompanied, lusty, singing by a really friendly crowd. Camping available. One of the festivals I really miss now I am living down under.

Subject: RE: festivals with Unaccompanied singing
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 09 Feb 20 - 04:04 PM

Hi Shez - I think we'll be running some singarounds at Chippenham, so hope to see you there..... is it really 25 years.....?!!!

Kitty

Subject: RE: festivals with Unaccompanied singing
From: Shezinaussie
Date: 11 Feb 20 - 03:01 PM

Thanks Vectis - I googled and found a ph number for Clare Penny - she is passing info on to whoever is running it - sounds perfect actually!!!
Hi Herga Kitty - It was 25 yrs since I lived in UK, but I did come back in 2009 & 2010 I think it was, and probably came to Herga then! (can't remember ....CRAFT :))
I have applied to steward at Chippenham!

Still looking for a camper van though, if anyone knows of one; or can recommend a dealer - budget is 10000 pounds; bed above the cab, and bed at the back; toilet/shower - everything else is a bonus but not essential!

Subject: RE: festivals with Unaccompanied singing
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 10 Mar 20 - 10:38 AM

Hi Shez, in case you miss it on the Coronavirus thread, I'm sorry to say that the Fifesing weekend in mid-May has been cancelled owing to concerns re possible spread of the virus among not-so- young singers. Just heard this morning. Hope your trip is not hampered in any way.

Subject: RE: festivals with Unaccompanied singing
From: Shezinaussie
Date: 15 Mar 20 - 09:25 AM

thanks for all your help - it was all in hand, everything on track.....but, blindsided by a stoke of medical reality - 'the virus' - so, sadly, we have cancelled our trip for 2020 - but, we'll be back.....2021 will be the year it seems !

Subject: RE: festivals with Unaccompanied singing
From: Shezinaussie
Date: 04 Nov 21 - 12:54 AM

well....maybe 2022.....just read my last comment in March 2020 - and here we are just over 18 mths later saying 'maybe 2022' - just shook the dust off the 2020 spreadsheet, spent an hour on the net, filled in the potential dates for 2022 - our borders in Aussie have opened, well nearly, and provided the airfares are not horrendous, 2022 is the UK year - SOOOO looking forward to having a sing with you all, as sadly, unaccompanied singing is definitely hard to find in Aussie now - it is still happening, but definitely NOT on the main stages, and to quote Annie Fentiman a few years back, 'we are even scratching to find it in the village hall'! looking forward to 4 mths of singing!

Subject: RE: festivals with Unaccompanied singing
From: GUEST,Malcolm Storey
Date: 04 Nov 21 - 08:49 PM

The request was for JUNE.
Just to clarify - the Towerfest at Drax is predominently Country and Western with - as far as I know - no unaccompanied singing.

Subject: RE: festivals with Unaccompanied singing
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 05 Nov 21 - 03:35 AM

Must have pedal steel for country music!!

Subject: RE: festivals with Unaccompanied singing
From: The Sandman
Date: 05 Nov 21 - 04:35 AM

there are six counties in the geographical island of ireland that are in the UK.
IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO HAVE PEDAL STEEL FOR COUNTRY MUSIC.BONZO some INFOThe pedal steel guitar is a console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all steel guitars, it can play unlimited glissandi (sliding notes) and deep vibrati—characteristics it shares with the human voice. Pedal steel is most commonly associated with American country music and Hawaiian music.

Pedals were added to a lap steel guitar in 1940, allowing the performer to play a major scale without moving the bar and also to push the pedals while striking a chord, making passing notes slur or bend up into harmony with existing notes. The latter creates a unique sound that has been popular in country and western music— a sound not previously possible on steel guitars before pedals were added.

From its first use in Hawaii in the 19th century, the steel guitar sound became popular in the United States in the first half of the 20th century and spawned a family of instruments designed specifically to be played with the guitar in a horizontal position, also known as "Hawaiian-style". The first instrument in this chronology was the Hawaiian guitar also called a lap steel; next was a lap steel with a resonator to make it louder, first made by National and Dobro Corporation. The electric guitar pickup was invented in 1934, allowing steel guitars to be heard equally with other instruments. Electronic amplification enabled subsequent development of the electrified lap steel, then the console steel, and finally the pedal steel guitar.

Playing the pedal steel has unusual physical requirements in requiring simultaneous coordination of both hands, both feet and both knees (knees operate levers on medial and lateral sides of each knee); the only other instrument with similar requirements is the American reed organ. Pioneers in development of the instrument include Buddy Emmons, Jimmy Day, Bud Isaacs, Zane Beck, and Paul Bigsby. In addition to American country music, the instrument is used in sacred music in the eastern and southern United States (called Sacred Steel), jazz, and Nigerian Music.

Subject: RE: festivals with Unaccompanied singing
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 05 Nov 21 - 04:58 AM

I'm not sure about the last paragraph. I'm sure I've seen church organs that require the use of knees to effect register changes and the feet are used to operate bass pedals.

Subject: RE: festivals with Unaccompanied singing
From: The Sandman
Date: 05 Nov 21 - 04:00 PM

yes, i think you are right Manitas